'Mayday' distress signal has nothing to do with May 1

Mayday -- the distress call -- has nothing to do with the first day of May and its accompanying tradition.

May 1 used to be a day to make a May Day basket and put some treats in it, hang it on your sweetie's doorknob, ring the doorbell and run off and hide in the bushes and watch him or her come out to get it.

I don't think anybody does that basket thing any more, which is just as well because I never got the point of all that running off and hiding in the bushes thing anyway.

So, about your question: Mayday, repeated three times as a call for help, is an anglicized version of the French phrases m'aidez or m'aider, which more or less mean, "Whoa, I'm in deep you-know-what."

Actually, the former means "help me" and the latter means "to render help to me." Same thing.

Now, remember the one last week from the guy who said he had found the carcass of an owl, which he estimated to weigh 25 pounds?

I pointed out that our largest North American owl only weighs two or three pounds so it was unlikely that's what the guy found.

Several of you want to know if a big owl weighs so little how it can carry away its prey, such as a rabbit.

First of all, rabbits don't weigh all that much.

Secondly, a great horned owl has the lifting power to carry stuff weighing as much as eight pounds.